Art. 21 of the "Organic Law of the Liberator Simón Bolívar Against the Imperialist Blockade and in Defence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" stipulates that electronic media and social networks allowing the dissemination of advertising, propaganda, or messages that promote the imposition of unilateral coercive measures, or other restrictive or punitive actions affecting Venezuela, shall be subject to fines. In the case of digital platforms, the relevant authorities may additionally revoke or refuse authorisation to operate within the country. The sanctions established in this article shall be applied without prejudice to any applicable criminal penalties.

Art. 22 of the "Constitutional Law Against Hatred, for Peaceful Coexistence and Tolerance" stipulates that, in the context of social networks and electronic media, the failure to remove within six hours any messages that constitute propaganda in favour of war or the advocacy of national, racial, religious, political or other forms of hatred shall result in the blocking of the relevant platforms.
It is reported that, as of August 2025, one year had passed since the blocking of the social network X and the messaging application Signal in Venezuela. Between 7 January and 5 February 2025, at least nine internet service providers restricted access to TikTok, and on 9 January 2025, the state-owned telecommunications provider CANTV imposed a DNS block on Canva, a major web-based design platform, for at least twelve hours. During the same month, Telegram was also subjected to blocking by major providers. In 2025, 61 news websites remain inaccessible. Although several restrictions originated in previous years, new blocks were documented in 2025, including the blocking of the website of the Spanish news agency EFE on 22 March. The government has simultaneously intensified restrictions on censorship circumvention tools such as VPNs, the Tor network and public DNS services, with 58 new cases recorded between 4 July 2024 and 31 January 2025, comprising 26 VPN service websites, the Tor Project website and 30 public DNS servers. In the early hours of 9 January 2025, the country’s principal internet service providers blocked the websites of at least 21 VPN services, in addition to others blocked in preceding days, following orders issued by CONATEL, the governmental body responsible for regulating, supervising and overseeing telecommunications in Venezuela.

The indicator "7.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 3 in Venezuela for the year 2025. This corresponds to "Rarely but there have been a few occasions throughout the year when the government shut down domestic access to Internet."

Importers and customs agents have reported bureaucratic, costly and unpredictable customs procedures in Venezuela. Complaints include delays caused by burdensome administrative requirements, the suspension or blocking of customs agents’ access credentials to the Automated Customs System (Sistema Aduanero Automatizado, SIDUNEA) without a clear or timely procedure, requests to comply with documents or conditions that are not contained in, or supported by, the applicable legal framework, and frequent changes to customs rules. These practices may delay customs clearance and increase storage and other logistics costs for importers.

According to Art. 97.8 of Decree No. 1402, banking institutions are prohibited from transferring their principal computer centres and databases, either in electronic form or as users' physical documents, to a foreign territory. The Superintendency of Banking Sector Institutions is in charge of issuing regulations to determine which computer centres and databases qualify as principal in accordance with a binding opinion issued by the Central Bank.

Based on the safety and confidentiality principle (No. 7) set forth in Decision No. 1318, the transfer of personal data to other countries requires the data owner's prior consent and that the recipient country has rules guaranteeing, at least, the same level of protection of personal data as Venezuelan regulations.

Venezuela has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

There is not a comprehensive data protection framework in Venezuela. However, there are isolated provisions in some existing laws that regulate certain aspects related to data protection, e.g., in the telecommunications sector through the Regulation for the Protection of the Rights of Users in the Provision of Telecommunications Services 2018. In addition, the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela establishes general principles that serve as a framework for the protection of information. These principles were developed by decision No. 1318 of the Supreme Court of Justice, guarding the honour, privacy, intimacy, self-image, confidentiality, and reputation of individuals.

Administrative Ruling No. 171 establishes mandatory data retention obligations for telephone companies, including those offering mobile telephone services. Arts. 9, 12, and 13 stipulate that the data to be retained encompasses Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, connection dates and times, geographic locations, and records of calls and text messages sent or received. In addition, the Ruling mandates that operators furnish retained data to security services upon request, without explicitly requiring judicial authorisation.

Art. 7 of Administrative Ruling No. 171 establishes that the operators of mobile and fixed telephony services, through wireless networks or non-geographic numbers with nomadic voice services, must immediately provide particular information of the applicants to State security agencies that may require it during a criminal investigation. The need for a judicial order is not specified.

It is reported that piracy, including online piracy, together with unauthorised camcording and the widespread use of unlicensed software, remains a persistent challenge.

Venezuela has signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty in December 1996, but has not ratified it.

Venezuela has signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty in December 1996, but has not ratified it.

Venezuela lacks a comprehensive regime for the protection of trade secrets.

There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Venezuela to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements. Art. 125 of the Organic Law on Telecommunications establishes that any person that exclusively or predominantly owns or controls a general telecommunications route must allow access to or use of the same by telecommunications operators that request it when its substitution is not feasible for physical, legal, economic, technical, environmental, security or operational reasons. The same article states that general telecommunications routes are understood to be the elements that allow the placement of the physical means necessary for the provision of telecommunications services in accordance with the requirements of the respective regulations.